Stressors

You would not BELIEVE what a mess the upstairs of my house is right now. All kinds of crap from the girls' room has been shoved into my office. This is very upsetting.

The rest of the crap in the girls room is covered with tarps, preparatory to beginning painting.

Rob asked me to bring a bunch of boxes home from the office. He says that this is so that we can just "get some more of the stuff in the girls room out of the way for painting." In my experience, whenever Rob gets his hands on boxes, he shoves junk into them (generally papers and mail he just never seems to get around to reading and dealing with) and shoves them into the basement, hoping I won't notice. Consequently, I always get itchy whenever Rob asks me to bring boxes home. I don't trust him.

My computer still has not been configured for the wireless network. Rob has gone through all the phone and Internet support available and been told he has to bring it into the store. He has not done so, being distracted by getting the girls' room ready for painting. My computer has been moved downstairs to Rob's TV room so he can dink around with it, instead of being in my office. This is even more upsetting.

No job hunting to speak of has gotten done this week, due to the computer problems and the painting the girls' room preparation.

My Friday Night

I fled the chaos of my house for the Seven Corners area, near the University. I had dinner at Noodles & Co. (a virtuous dinner, heavy on the vegetables, under 400 calories). Then (Kij will be pleased to hear this) I tried the climbing cave at Midwest Mountaineering. Advantage: it's free to climb, and you can rent shoes for three bucks. Cheap! I wasn't interested in rope-climbing; I just wanted to do bouldering.

However . . .

I realized how spoiled I got by climbing with Kij at Stone Gardens. That gym was big, with clearly defined routes. The climbing isn't really marked at Midwest Moutaineering, and practically none of it is just straight up and down a wall, which was what I'd like to try as a beginner. It is just about all overhang and around-the-corner stuff. There was only one other guy there, but I still felt intimidated by having someone else there who obviously knew what the hell he was doing (unlike me). I was only good for about twenty minutes or so, and then my lack of upper arm strength, combined with my frustration that I couldn't seem to get started on any route very efficiently, made me stop. Oh well, I tried it. I may go back--they do offer some clinics. I could try Vertical Endeavors, which seems to be equivalent to Stone Gardens, but that's a helluva lot more expensive, of course.

Then I went to Tillie's Bean, where I pulled out my Jane Austen tarot deck and tried a couple readings, as I watched a music-and-magic show. The first reading was garbage, but the second was spot on.

Came home. The house reeks of paint. The girls will be sleeping down in the living room for the next few days.